More on the Vacation
So, I missed filling in a couple of things in my last post and need to back track a bit before I move forward.Day 5 - Wednesday - of the trip was also notable because this is the day that my ears finally equalized pressure with the outside world. I wasn't feeling any cold symptoms on our flights, but my cold must have been with me because my ears wouldn't "pop" when we landed. They finally did pop on Wednesday. It was hellish, lemme tell you.
I also neglected to mention my first sailboat ride, which we took Wednesday evening. The whole trip was such a comedy of errors that it really deserves its own post. As such, I will devote an entire post to this later. Suffice it to say that anything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Day 6 - Thursday, Bermuda Day - After the race, we went back home. Once the racers were showered and well watered, Prince Charming and SpyBoyfriend finally escaped all of the estrogen to hit the links. They played the Riddle's Bay course with Elise the Spy's husband Peter. By all accounts, they had a great time. So, good for them! Later this day, the girls walked to the Botanical Gardens and saw the peacocks. Fun, fun! It is time to take Bunny to the zoo, I think. I was called a bad mother yet again and then it was suggested that I was neglecting my child. So, I was taking plenty of lumps.
Day 7 - Friday - Prince Charming, Bunny Boop and I had a nice, quiet day indoors. We holed up and watched movies and had a grand ol' time nursing our sunburns. Later that evening, we got back together with the bigger group and went to Happy Hour at the Botanical Garden and then out to supper in St. David's. It was a very nice time.
Day 8 - Saturday - We had to return to our real lives. We flew out around 9:30 am and landed at JFK at around 12:30 pm. We expected to have a 3 hour layover, but because of JetBlue's new Customer Bill of Rights and a nasty storm in Illinois, we actually spent 5 hours in the airport waiting. Then, once we were actually on board there were other issues.
First, the helpful young male flight attendant began his safety protocol review. He was interrupted by the captain in the course of this. As he was getting ready to start back up again, a young woman on the opposite side of the plane and about 2 rows behind us suddenly stood up and walked to the front of the plane. She informed him that she didn't want to fly on an Embraer 190, she wanted to fly on an Airbus. He gave her this look (I saw it over her shoulder) that said, "okay, crazy lady. whatever you say..." and agreed to let her off the plane. She gathered her belongings and departed. This prompted a further delay in getting us pushed back from the gate, maybe 15-20 minutes.
After that, they resumed the flight safety protocol speech. Then, it was determined that there was some sort of malfunction with the rear lavatory and that had to be checked. Then, there was some sort of malfunction with a cabinet in the galley and that had to be put right. All I can say is, Thank God for those in flight direct tvs on the back of every seat! Once all the mechanical detritus had been put away and all those unwilling to fly on an Embraer jet had been escorted from the plane, the Captain came on with a most unwelcome announcement. We had been delayed so long that we were now at the back of the line for taking off. Apparently we had stumbled into JFK's rush hour. We had to wait another 50 minutes on the tarmac before we got to take off. Lovely, let me tell you.
We were supposed to land at O'Hare at 6:00 pm. We actually landed closer to 9:30 pm. Suck an Elf! Fortunately, all of our luggage made the trip and we only had to wait 12 minutes for the limo. We drove home to Wisconsin later that evening and arrived home at 1 am Sunday morning.
All in all, it was a good trip. We enjoyed our time away from work and the real world. It was nice getting to spend some time together as a family and playing on the beach and in the pool. SpySistah was a wonderful hostess and put up with quite a lot from us invaders.
Sunday we did lots of laundry and tried to stow all the stuff from the trip. Some of us (not Phoenix) even caught a nap. Phoenix paid bills and sorted mail and did those sorts of things.
There were a few important firsts to note:
1. Bunny Boop called me "Mama" for the first time and meant it.
2. I changed a diaper at 35,000 feet.
3. I made it to the grocery store on Sunday (after returning) before they were open. Waited 12 minutes for them to open the doors.
4. Rode in a sailboat
5. And a catamaran
That's it. More on the Comedy of Errors that had Prince Charming wondering if we were going on another infamous "Three-Hour Tour" tomorrow!
